Today: The polenta you can abandon is also the creamiest polenta -- even when you add nothing but water.

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Somehow polenta got itself a reputation for being needy.

We assumed it wanted to be stirred all the time, or it would burn and stick cruelly to the bottom of the pot. And when we agreed to helicopter-parent it, stirring dutifully with our wooden spoons, it sputtered and spat at us. And it lumped!

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(You know your other name is mush, right polenta? You think you're better than us?)

It seemed like such a diva that we stopped wanting to deal with it at all, and we started buying it ready-made in tubes (also known, horribly, as chubs).

But there's a better way! It's a no-nonsense polenta technique familiar to Italian restaurant kitchens everywhere -- and this foolproof, well-written version is courtesy of Carlo Middione's The Foods of Southern Italy.

You don't need to be stirring continuously for 45 minutes. You don't even need to be paying very much attention.

All you need to do is to stir a bit in the beginning, set it over slow-simmering water, and cover it. Use a double boiler if you've got it, or just rig up a smaller bowl or pot and cover with foil. It will (mostly) babysit itself for hours.

This makes it perfect for a dinner party, or anytime you want to get cooking well before dinner time and go about your business.

Better still, as Judy Rodgers observed -- the longer it sits, the better it gets. Any bitterness fades; every gritty grain swells and turns to cream. You can make it with stock, or add milk or cream or cheese, but even straight water polenta will taste better than it has a right to.

Got a genius recipe to share -- from a classic cookbook, an online source, or anywhere, really? Please send it my way (and tell me what's so smart about it) at [email protected].

Photos by James Ransom, except Carlo Middione by Daniel Bahmani

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I'm an ex-economist, ex-Californian who moved to New York to work in food media in 2007. Dodgy career choices aside, I can't help but apply the rational tendencies of my former life to things like: recipe tweaking, digging up obscure facts about pizza, and deciding how many pastries to put in my purse for "later."

Comments (50)

Some years ago there was a small restaurant in the Bay Area that served the best polenta concoction I've ever had: very creamy polenta with a dollop of pesto in the middle of the bowl and with thinish slices of cheese (gruyere?) and tomatoes around the edges. I've made it a number of times but never gotten it quite right; this method just might do the trick! Doing it this weekend.

Ha, I googled to find my favorite easy oven baked way and found my own comment on food52.com help line. This is from chef Gary Danko as published in the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook back some time.

Polenta has been a staple in my kitchen for -ever! I use Joyce Goldstein's method of adding polenta/salt to cold water and heating while stirring and have never had a lump. I also cook in glass which holds temperature very steady, turn it way down until it's thick, turn it off and plop a lid on until we're ready for it. Easy-peasy!

Kristen, this is awesome. It is so true that the longer it sits the better it tastes. The same applies when making my grandmother's vegetable soup recipe. Letting sit and cook just makes the taste worth the wait!

Sounds very good but i think Russ Parsons' version which was featured in the LA Times on 2/18/2010 is even simpler and I've been baking my polenta ever since.I highly recommend the article. don't know how to link things properly but anyone interested can just google Russ Parsons polenta.

We use polenta in the Carribean and just call it plain old cornmeal. One way we do it use it for is porridge for breakfast.Now if it is cooked the proper Carribean way, you would use cows milk, condensed milk, evaporated milk, brown sugar, fresh nutmeg, cinnamon sticks and vinalla. You would bring it to the boil and gradually add the other ingredients and put the lid on and then make it to your own thickness. However being that it is from the Carribean, each household has its own version. So with allergies and sensitivities etc, you could make it with almond and rice milk etc, sweeten it with stevia etc and then flavour it with the above spices depending on taste.

This is a great recipe, we do Polenta to replace bread on crostini and we will teach your method at www.cooking-class-authentic...The strange thing is that the book calls for southern recipes where polenta in known to be north POLENTONI is how a souther will tease a northern...

Glad you mentioned Ms. Rodgers' suggestion to put a cover on it and let it sit for a good long while. That single step makes a world of difference. (It gives the cornmeal a chance fully to hydrate, plumping it up to give the polenta the most luscious texture.) That, along with using ricotta whey instead of water, took the polenta in my kitchen to a whole new (wonderful) place. ;o)

I took a cooking class in Italy, and she taught me to stir the polenta in the water on the stove (to remove all lumps) and then heat to a simmer, and then reducing and adding more water, broth or milk over time if the mixture became to thick. I have never had problems with lumps.

I found a recipe a while back for making polenta in the crock pot-it's no fuss as well. I am also wondering how it would work to cook it like the steel cut oatmeal recipe I found on this site. Water bath in the crock pot - may give that a go just to see what happens. I hate stirring for long periods of time.